T 11 E R O T . 205 



been rondfred pprfectly sound and healthy by being* well under- 

 drained, thut is, by being made dry. There are hundreds of thou- 

 Bands of acres, on which a sheep, forty years ag-o, could not pasture 

 for a dav without becoming rotten, that are now as healthy as any in 

 the kingdom. 



We can also tell the kind of wet ground which Avill give the rot. 

 Wherever the water will soon run olT, there is no danger; but where 

 it lies upon the surface of the ground, and slowly evaporates, the rot 

 is certain. One part of a common shall be enclosed ; or if it has not 

 been drained, at least the hollows in which the water used to stand 

 are filled up, and the surface is levelled : no rot is caught there. On 

 the other side of the hedge there are these marshy places, these little 

 stagnant ponds, where evaporation is always going forward, and the 

 ground is never dry — a sheep cannot put his foot there without being 

 rotted. These are plain, palpable facts, and they are sufficient for 

 the farmej's purpose, Avithout his puzzling his brains about the man- 

 ner in which wet ground produces diseased liver. 



He may be assured that it has nothing to do with the animal's 

 feeding on stimulatincr or poisonous herbs. It has nothino- whatever 

 to do with the food. It depends on the wetness or dryness of the 

 pasture. 



How is it, then, that when so great a part of the country is under- 

 drained, the rot should continue to be almost as prevalent as everl 

 Why is it not so prevalent where the ground has been properly under- 

 drained T There are fields in every well-managed farm in which the 

 rot is never known ; there are others in which it still continues to 

 depopulate the flock. 



The draining may not be equally effectual in both. It might have 

 been carelessly, superficially performed in the one case; or the soil 

 of the two pastures may be Vi ry different. The one may be liu-ht 

 and porous, and a little draining may effect the purpose : the soil of 

 the other may be heavy and tenacious, and drains not more than a 

 yard asunder would scarcel}' keep it dry. What is more to the pur- 

 pose, but less thought of, there may be little nooks and corners in the 

 field that have not been underdrained. A few minutes' trampling 

 upon them will be fatal to the sheep, and one or t\\ o of them upon 

 the whole farm will render all the labour bestowed on every othei 

 part absolutely nugatory. 



It is surprising how soon the animal is infected. The merely 

 going once to drink from a notedly dangerous pond has been suffi- 

 cient. The passing over one suspicious common in the way to or 

 from the fair, and the lingerinsf '^nly for a few minutes in a deep and 

 poachy lane. Then it can easily be conceived what mischief one or 

 two of these neglected corners, in which there may be little swamps 

 oerhaps only a yard or two across, may do in a farm in other respects 

 well managed, and perfectly free from infection. 



The disease of the liver terminating in or constitutino the rot, is, 

 Uien, dependent on moisture, and that retained for a certain time od 

 18 



